April Fool's
by Charlie O'Kelley
Summary: An April Fool's piece that I am a bit late on posting. Rick and Kate get some startling news at his birthday party. Rated T but could probably be K .


A short little one shot that I have been trying to get out for about a year now, and I finally did! Yippee! Rayleen helped to beta this and go over a few things on this for me so Thanks! Thanks also to Teelduo for checking on some things about Johanna Beckett. I never found out her age but I am going to assume that she knew Jim for a while before they got married. Maybe even a long while.

Set in Season 4 after 47 Seconds and before The Limey. Also, I have seen conflicting things on when Castle's birthday is (the year at least) so I am picking that he was born the same year as Nathan Fillion, 1971. Also, I am going on the assumption that Kate was shot at the end of May so if there was anything different in spoilers or anything, I don't know it cause I am spoiler free, mostly.

I decided to do something a little different and I wrote it in Rick's point of view. Enjoy.

* * *

**The Surprise**

It's my birthday and I can sulk if I want to. I know that I should be more grown up about it, after all I am 41 today but as my dear daughter always tells me, "We don't have to grow up, we just need to learn how to act in public." I normally do reasonably well but I just feel like sulking today. And I had plenty of reasons to sulk today. I had recently found out that Kate has been lying to me for the past however many months, I got next to no sleep last night and I was headed in early on a Sunday morning. I came into the precinct with Beckett's coffee as always but before I could even give it to her, the Captain stopped me. I was informed that under no uncertain terms was I to do any pranks, play any jokes or anything to celebrate the day. In other words, my birthday was going to suck this year.

The only saving grace so far was this weird freaky case that had fallen into our laps last night. It involved an umbrella, a donut, and a wiener. I had plenty of theories about the case but, like usual, people didn't really listen to me, and to be honest, my heart wasn't really into it today. Esposito came in with a suspect then before I knew it, the case was closed. I just sat in my chair waiting for the paperwork to be finished or another call to come in but no luck on either front.

I finally decided that I needed to get out and have some lunch. I realized that maybe I could even play some sort of prank on the guys while we were away from the precinct, after all, what Gates doesn't know, won't get me kicked out. It was as if she read my mind though when we were all standing up and grabbing our jackets. She walked out with a large stack of folders and needed the 'real police' to look through them. Everyone sighed then sat back down, except for me. I needed to get out and avoid that paper.

I stopped off at our favorite Chinese restaurant and picked up lunch for everyone. Well, not for Gates. I knew that she wouldn't be joining us especially since I was the one getting the food; I thought it would be safe to have a little fun. On the canister of Egg Drop Soup, I labeled it Humpty Dumpty Guts, the egg rolls were labeled Baby Chicken Loaf but my favorite were the spare ribs which I marked Adam's Lost Parts.

I was pleased to see that Gates was indeed out when I got back with lunch. I knew that my little joke was probably enough to piss her off and I knew that I was still on rocky ground with her. We had a good lunch but I think that they were all a bit on edge because they seemed to be very cautious about what they ate. They must have thought that I had done something to the food itself instead of just writing the funny names on the cartons.

Once they all had eaten and realized that I hadn't done anything to the food, we all had a nice lunch. Unfortunately, Captain Gates took a short one and was back sooner than expected. She glared at me as if she knew that had been up to something even though I hadn't. Of course, I think that woman will always think the worst of me no matter what. I let Beckett and the boys go back to their desk and the stacks of paperwork while I cleaned up the leftovers. I was a bit surprised when my phone suddenly rang.

"Hello, Mother."

"Hello, Richard. I hope you are having a good birthday so far."

"They solved the case and we just finished lunch. They are working on stacks of paperwork right now."

"And what are you doing? Messing with their chairs, hiding their pens?" my mother questioned me.

"No," I said sadly. "The Captain won't let me. Besides, Kate will hurt me if I mess with her chair again."

"So they will be stuck with paperwork all day?"

"Yeah, I think that I'm going to run out to the Haunt and do some writing there before I come home."

"Okay. The reason that I called though was to have you invite Kate and the other detectives over tonight for dinner."

"Mother," I said in a warning tone. I had told her that I didn't want a birthday party.

"Now, Richard. Alexis was wondering why you didn't want to do anything so unless you want to explain it to her, I thought this would be the best. Don't you worry. It's just going to be family."

I knew when I had lost and so I headed back out to the bullpen and I was glad to see that Kate was in the Captain's office. I quickly told Ryan and Esposito about the dinner plans and picked up my things to leave.

"What's up guys?" Kate said from behind me surprising me a bit.

"Castle just invited us all over to his place for dinner tonight to celebrate his birthday," Esposito said.

"You coming?" Ryan asked as if she had already heard about the party.

"I don't know. I have plans with my dad," Kate explained looking a bit confused. She was probably wondering why I hadn't mentioned it directly to her earlier.

"He can come too," I said knowing that was expected of me.

"We'll see," she said leaving it up in the air.

"I'll let you all get back to your paperwork," I explained as I headed out.

I left the precinct but I didn't want to head home yet. I had no desire to have to deal with Mother and Alexis planning a party that I didn't really want to attend in the first place. I wandered over to my favorite toy store but even the neat gadgets there didn't cheer me up. My wanderings finally took me to the Old Haunt so I sat in my booth, and tried to write. I couldn't really think because my thoughts were stuck on Kate and her lie. The only reason that I could think of for her to not tell me for months that she actually had heard me confess my feelings was that she didn't feel the same way. I thought that she had some feelings for me but I guessed that they weren't as intense as mine for her.

After a couple of hours, I headed home. I stood outside my door and tried to put on a cheery face for Alexis' benefit if nothing else. Soon, my friends started to arrive and the drinks started flowing. Kate hadn't arrived with the rest of the guys from the 12th so I figured that she would not be making it but with the way Mother kept looking at the door, I was wondering who else was going to be arriving. I had walked over to her and was just about to ask her what was going on when the doorbell rang. Alexis was closest to the door so she opened it to reveal Kate and her father.

"What's wrong, Mother?" I asked as she gasped.

"Is that Kate's father?" she asked with a funny note to her voice.

"Yeah. I thought you met him at the funeral or at least in the hospital."

"Well, just quickly. I thought he looked familiar..." Mother then just wandered off towards Kate. Not knowing what was going on, I simply followed. I needed to greet the new guests anyway. I got to them and heard Kate introduce the parents to each other.

"Martha, this is my dad, Jim Beckett. Dad this is Castle's mom, Martha Rogers."

"Rogers?"

"Yes," she said.

"You didn't by any chance ever go to a party at Jack Burr's house, did you?"

"How did you-?" Mother asked but stopped suddenly. "Alexander?"

"Sort of," Jim Beckett responded. "My friend Alexander Williams was supposed to go to the party but he didn't want to. I owed him a favor so I went for him, and told everyone that I was Alexander. He was only supposed to go to be a face for his company and he didn't know anyone there so it wasn't a problem."

Kate and I looked at each other not knowing what was going on. "Mother, what's going on?"

"Son, it seems that I already have met Jim. A long time ago."

"How long ago?" I asked suddenly worried.

"Almost 42 years ago," my mother said softly.

"What?" Kate and I said at the same time looking at my mother in shock before glancing at each other then looking away. Part of my brain noticed that the rest of the guests suddenly fell silent.

"I met a man named Alexander 41 years and 9 months ago at a party. And well, you are the result of that."

I looked in horror to Kate. The first thing that crossed my mind was that it's a good thing that Kate didn't have any feelings for me. Then I thought that it was great that something had kept us apart this whole time so that we hadn't slept together. I shuddered at the thought now.

"No," Kate suddenly said. "You have to be wrong."

"I'm sorry, dear. I met Richard's father, a man calling himself Alexander, at Jack Burr's house for a Fourth of July party. I've never hidden that fact. Now I know why I was never able to find him."

"But I thought he was CIA?" I said, mad at myself for admitting that I had fallen for yet another of Sophia's lies.

"No, I'm not CIA," Jim said with a smile.

"You lied," Kate said softly. "You said Mom was your one and done."

"She was," Jim assured her.

"Then how could you cheat on her?" she exclaimed. I didn't realize what was going on. I wouldn't have thought that her parents would have been married for that long before Kate was born.

"I didn't cheat on her," he insisted.

"Did you break up at some point then?" Kate said sounding desperate to believe anything that didn't make her father a cheater.

"No."

"But," Kate said looking in my direction, the pain obvious in her eyes.

"Martha, I'm sorry. I can't," Jim said.

"Of course. Richard, come with me. Alexis, can you entertain everyone for a few minutes?"

"Sure, Grams," my daughter said quietly, suddenly making me remember everyone else who was here at the loft tonight. I didn't say anything as my mother led the way into my office.

"You lied to me, Dad. You said you never thought of another woman after you met Mom."

"I didn't," Jim insisted trying to take her hands to comfort her but she pulled away both from her father and me.

"You always told me you met Mom the summer of 1969."

"I did. We were at a mutual friend's house and watched the moon landing together," Jim said smiling slightly, clearly remembering happier times.

"Rick was conceived the summer after you met Mom," Kate accused.

"Kate. I ran into Martha this morning-"

"So you knew this when I called you to invite you here?" she exclaimed.

"Katie, listen to me," he pleaded.

"No, you lied to me! Do you know how that makes me feel to know that you lied to me for this long?" Kate said tears in her eyes.

"I know," I suddenly spoke up. Kate shot me a glare for interrupting her before turning back to her father only to be interrupted by my mother.

"Kate, dear. I'm sorry, this was just an April Fool's joke," Mother explained.

"What?" Kate and I asked both shocked and a little bit pleased.

"I ran into Jim this morning at the coffee shop and I thought I would finally be able to get you with an April Fool's joke, Richard."

"It didn't turn out that good did it Mother?" I asked.

"No, it didn't," she said looking very upset making me regret my harsh tone.

"So you never cheated on Mom?" Kate asked just to make sure.

"Never. We thought it would be a good joke on Rick but it actually never occurred on me that you would fall for it too. You never have before."

"I guess you got me," Kate said with the hint of a smile.

"And I got you good," Jim chuckled. "Kate, I loved your mother. From the day I met her, I knew that there wasn't ever going to be anyone else for me. She didn't believe me but I didn't give up on her. I had to wait years before she finally realized that I really did love her."

"How did you convince her?" I suddenly asked.

"She was stubborn. I just had to be more stubborn."

"How did you do that?" my mother asked.

"I didn't let her go. I told her I love her."

"Let me guess, she said she didn't believe you."

"No, she just ignored it."

"Like mother, like daughter," I said trying not to let my voice be too snarky.

"You heard?" she asked, clearly surprised. I could see the emotions crossing her face as if she suddenly understood why I had been acting the way I had been for the past week.

"Why did you lie?" I asked her both of us forgetting that each of us had a parent in the room.

"Because I was scared," she said.

"Scared that you don't feel the same?" I said to her, my voice rising in volume. "I told you I love you and you thought it was better to just ignore that instead of telling me the truth?"

"No. I wasn't afraid because I didn't feel the same," she said her volume matching mine before dropping to nearly a whisper. "I was afraid because I do."

"You do?" I asked, my voice matching hers but full of surprise.

"Yes. I am so afraid that you will leave or get hurt some day and I don't think I could live with that," she said with her eyes glistening but looking directly into mine.

"You know that I can't promise that I'll never get hurt," I said taking a step closer to her and lightly taking her face into my hands. "I can't promise you that I'll never do something that'll hurt you. I can promise that I will never willingly hurt you or leave you."

"You promise?" she asked as her hands came up to lightly touch mine.

"Always," I promised her with the best word I knew. I smiled a bit as I watched her smile bloom across her face then as she bit her lower lip, that nervous habit of hers that I loved. "This isn't an elaborate April Fools on me is it?" I couldn't help but ask.

"No, Rick it isn't. I wouldn't do that to you. Oh, your shoe is untied," she said glancing down. I looked down but was surprised when her lips suddenly found mine in a quick kiss. "April Fools."  
She tried to pull away but I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer. Our lips met again gently but very soon, it escalated until I heard a throat being cleared then my mother speaking.

"Richard."

"Mother," I said, not terribly thrilled that she interrupted us. "I just got the best birthday present, let me, um, enjoy it for a minute or two at least."

"Hmm," went Mother rolling her eyes before she and Jim left us in private.

"You were going to say 'let me play with my new present' weren't you?" Kate said after her father shut the door behind them.

"You know me too well. I didn't want to say that in front of your dad," I smiled before tenderly touching her cheek. "Say it again."

"Say what?" she said coyly, causing my eyebrow to shoot up.

"Three certain words," I hinted knowing that she hadn't actually said them but had certainly implied them.

"I don't remember saying any three certain words."

"Kate," I nearly begged needing her to finally said those words. Luckily she took pity on me.

"I love you, Rick Castle." We pulled each other closer, our lips intent on meeting and just as happened so often before our 'friends' interrupted us. At least this time, they all seemed to be happy and celebrating.

"Why do people keep interrupting us?" Kate asked with a smile, trying to ignore them all.

"I don't know but they are just going to have to deal with it. I'm the birthday boy and I'll kiss who I want to."

"And then tomorrow?" she asked with a mischievous gleam in her eye.

"I'll still kiss you then," I promised her.

"Good, cause I'm not planning on letting you go."

**The end**


End file.
